Blog Tour- BLUE BLOOD by Lily Ragley With A Guest Post & #Giveaway!

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the BLUE BLOOD by Lily Ragley Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: BLUE BLOOD: Mafia Romance & Suspense (The Family Book 1)

Author: Lily Ragley

Pub. Date: September 15, 2023

Publisher: Lily Ragley

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 342

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/BLUE-BLOOD

 

What price would you pay...to rule the largest mafia Family? My husband has earned his way to the top. But I am anchored down by the past.

I was 25 when the Don selected me as his bride. Cold, commanding, and ruthless - he wanted nothing less than the best. And that was me. Perfectly perfect… and all a farce.

Once he discovers my past, there’s no saving me. Not from his judgment or from the traitors lying in wait. For everyone knows the Family does not believe in dishonor, but they do in murder.


Blue Blood is a standalone, arranged marriage, mafia romantic-suspense.

 

Blue Blood: My Top Five Scenes | Lily Ragley

There are so many moments, both romantic and suspenseful, that I loved while writing Blue Blood. Here are a select few of the many scenes that made me giddy as a writer:

1. The Wedding Night

All arranged marriage romances have to start with a spectacularly awkward wedding night, right? Gio and Ana’s wedding night is no exception. In a conservative mafia society like the Family, both of them have kept up with protocol and maintained their distance. Seeing them finally come together made for some great awkward tension.

2. Ana Takes Control

Our poor heroine, Ana, has been through a lot by the time she is married to Gio. But in the weeks after her wedding, she slowly starts to gain courage around her powerful husband. I loved seeing her turn the tables on him in bed–or rather, in his office.

3. Gio vs. His Advisor

As the Don of the mob Family, Gio has a dangerous reputation. He is notorious for being vengeful and strict. But he seems quiet and patient at the start of his marriage to Ana…until she finds him feuding with his advisor and realizes why he has his deadly reputation.

4. The First Meeting

Most of Blue Blood centers on Gio and Ana’s marriage, which takes place two years after their initial engagement. This flashback to their very first meeting is one of my favorite scenes. It shows their initial attraction to each other and how open and innocent they were before tragedy struck.

5. The Climax

This is one is an easy, and dare I say cop-out, scene to pick. But the climax is the most action-packed and heart-racing scene in the book. The long build-up and questions about what happened in the past culminate in a thrilling and twisted ending.

 

About Lily Ragley:

Lily Ragley is a corporate worker by day and a debut author by night. She enjoys sweet romances with a touch of dark mystery.

Offline, she likes long walks, chocolate, staycations - and did she mention chocolate?

Find and follow Lily!

https://lnk.bio/lilyragley

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive an eBook of BLUE BLOOD, US Only.

Ends October 3rd, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

9/18/2023	JB's Bookworms with Brandy Mulder	Guest Post
9/18/2023	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt/IG Post
9/19/2023	Writer of Wrongs	Guest Post
9/19/2023	Two Chicks on Books	Guest Post/IG Post
9/20/2023	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
9/20/2023	Sandra's Book Club	Review
9/21/2023	The Momma Spot	Excerpt/IG Post
9/21/2023	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
9/22/2023	The Paper Witches	Review/IG Post
9/22/2023	Destiny_Path	Review/IG Post

Week Two:

9/25/2023	Thatsmutbookbabe	IG Review
9/25/2023	book.aholic003	IG Review
9/26/2023	Gryffindorbookishnerd	IG Review
9/26/2023	Lifestyle of Me	Review
9/27/2023	Meet The Fultons	Review/IG Post
9/27/2023	jlreadstoperpetuity	IG Review
9/28/2023	OneMoreExclamation	Review/IG Post
9/28/2023	Books and Zebras	IG Review
9/29/2023	@bookish_aly_cat	IG Review
9/29/2023	thindbooks	Review/IG Post

Blog Tour- KIN: ROOTED IN HOPE by @poetweatherford & #jefferybostonweatherford With An Excerpt & #Giveaway! @SimonKIDS

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the KIN by Carole Boston Weatherford & Jeffery Boston Weatherford Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: KIN: Rooted in Hope

Author: Carole Boston Weatherford & Jeffery Boston Weatherford

Pub. Date: September 19, 2023

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 208

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/KINROOTEDINHOPE 

A powerful portrait of a Black family tree shaped by enslavement and freedom, rendered in searing poems by acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford and stunning art by her son Jeffery Boston Weatherford.

I call their names:
Abram Alice Amey Arianna Antiqua
I call their names:
Isaac Jake James Jenny Jim
Every last one, property of the Lloyds,
the state’s preeminent enslavers.
Every last one, with a mind of their own
and a story that ain’t yet been told.
Till now.

Carole and Jeffery Boston Weatherford’s ancestors are among the founders of Maryland. Their family history there extends more than three hundred years, but as with the genealogical searches of many African Americans with roots in slavery, their family tree can only be traced back five generations before going dark. And so from scraps of history, Carole and Jeffery have conjured the voices of their kin, creating an often painful but ultimately empowering story of who their people were in a breathtaking book that is at once deeply personal yet all too universal.

Carole’s poems capture voices ranging from her ancestors to Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman to the plantation house and land itself that connects them all, and Jeffery’s evocative illustrations help carry the story from the first mention of a forebear listed as property in a 1781 ledger to he and his mother’s homegoing trip to Africa in 2016. Shaped by loss, erasure, and ultimate reclamation, this is the story of not only Carole and Jeffery’s family, but of countless other Black families in America.

 

Excerpt:

 

About Carole Boston Weatherford & Jeffery Boston Weatherford Mother-Son/Author-Illustrator
Duo:

Hailed as “a master” and “the dean” of nonfiction for young people,” Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King  Award winner Carole Boston Weatherford is a New York Times best-seller and two-time NAACP Image Award  winner. Since her 1995 debut, she has authored 70-plus books including four Caldecott Honor winners: Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre; Freedom in Congo Square, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit  of the Civil Rights Movement, and Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. Her books have  won nine Coretta Scott King Awards or Honors. She writes the diverse books that she lacked as a child. 

A Baltimore native and the daughter of educators, Carole was virtually born with ink in her blood. At age six,  she dictated her first poem to her mother. Her father, a high school printing teacher, published a few of her  early poems on the press in his classroom. Meanwhile, her grandmothers passed down oral traditions and  stories. By middle school, Carole had transferred from an all-black public school to a majority-white, private  school where a teacher wrongfully accused her of plagiarism. That slight compelled her to chronicle a more  inclusive history, to amplify marginalized voices and to build monuments with words. 

Now, children’s books are a family affair for Carole. In KIN: Rooted in Hope, she and her son, award-winning  illustrator Jeffery Weatherford embark on a genealogical quest. Through multi-voiced poems and dramatic scratchboard illustrations, mother and son conjure the voices and visages of their forebears. Their ancestors lived through the American Revolution, fought in the Civil War, were enslaved alongside Frederick Douglass,  cofounded Reconstruction-era villages, and according to local lore, descended from African royalty.  

A professor at Fayetteville State University, an HBCU in North Carolina, Carole has been recognized with the  Nonfiction Award from the Children’s Book Guild, the North Carolina Literature Award, the Ragan-Rubin  Award from North Carolina English Teachers Association and a place in the North Carolina Literary Hall of  Fame. She is a life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. 

Jeffery earned his M.F.A. from Howard University where he was a Romare Bearden scholar and studied under  artists from the Black Arts Movement. A rapper and a fine artist, Jeffery has performed or exhibited in  Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Baltimore, North Carolina, West Africa and the Middle East. Jeffery’s first book was  You Can Fly the Tuskegee Airmen, and his first picture book was Call Me Miss Hamilton. Both appeared on best  book of the year lists. 

Website: http://cbweatherford.com Email: cbwpoet@gmail.com  

Publicist: The Literary/Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati (vlloydsgam@aol.com) 

Agent: Rubin Pfeffer Content

 

Sign up for Carole’s newsletter! Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Website | Twitter | Carole Instagram | Jeffrey Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of KIN, US Only.

Ends September 19th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

9/4/2023	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt/IG Post
9/4/2023	The Momma Spot	Excerpt
9/5/2023	YA Books Central	Interview
9/5/2023	Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers	Review/IG Post
9/6/2023	Book-Keeping	Excerpt/IG Post
9/6/2023	Cara North	Excerpt/IG Post
9/7/2023	@allyluvsbooksalatte	IG Review/TikTok Post
9/7/2023	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
9/8/2023	Review Thick And Thin	Review/IG Post
9/8/2023	A Backwards Story	Excerpt/IG Post

Week Two:

9/11/2023	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt/IG Post
9/11/2023	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post
9/12/2023	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post
9/12/2023	Gryffindorbookishnerd	IG Review
9/13/2023	evergirl200	IG Review
9/13/2023	@froggyreadteach	IG Review
9/14/2023	The Litt Librarian	Review/IG Post
9/14/2023	Paperwitchs	Review/IG Post
9/15/2023	@hodophile_z	IG Review
9/15/2023	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post

Blog Tour- THE SHAPE OF TIME by @RyanCalejo With Excerpts & A #Giveaway! @abramskids

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE SHAPE OF TIME by Ryan Calejo Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

 

About The Book:

Title: THE SHAPE OF TIME (RYMWORLD ARCANA BOOK ONE)

Author: Ryan Calejo

Pub. Date: September 12, 2023

Publisher: Amulet Books

Formats:  Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 304

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/THE-SHAPE-OF-TIME-Calejo

Thirteen-year-old Antares De La Vega is a natural born adventurer. He dreams of journeying across burning deserts, trekking through wild and uncharted jungles, sailing the furthest reaches of the seas—and yet, he’s never even stepped foot outside of South Florida . . . But that all changes when strange creatures come leaping out of lightning bolts to kidnap him. Locked away in a secret prison in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle, Antares meets 13-year-old Magdavellía, a mysterious and iron-willed girl who opens his eyes to a shocking truth: that this world is a far different place than he’s been led to believe. He learns of the existence of The Flat Earth Society, an ancient secret order, whose main function is to keep the world beyond the great Ice Wall a mystery—a land known as Rymworld. But Rymworld is in trouble. Led by a nameless evil, a sinister group of mystics seek to seize control over its only truly resource: time itself.

Antares and Magdavellía must set out beyond the edges of any map to discover the undiscoverable: a lost and forgotten island where there is rumored to exist a legendary artifact: a mythical compass that just might hold the key to foiling the mystics’ plans. Following a series of intricately concealed clues left behind by Magdavellía’s parents (clues Antares seems to be the key to unlocking), they must wield both geometry and alchemy, outsmart molemen and mermaids, and outrun fiendish outer space aliens––all while attempting to solve a riddle as old and mystifying as the sun.

 

Excerpts:

 

 

About Ryan Calejo:

Ryan Calejo is an award-winning author born and raised in sunny south Florida. His critically acclaimed Charlie Hernández series has been featured in half a dozen state reading lists and has earned starred reviews from Booklist and Kirkus, was a Texas Bluebonnet Master List Selection, and won an International Latino Book Award, a Sunshine State Young Readers Award, and a Florida Book Award (Gold Medal). He lives in Miami.

 

Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon

 

Giveaway Details:

2 winners will receive a finished copy of THE SHAPE OF TIME, US Only.

Ends October 3rd, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

9/4/2023	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt/IG Post
9/5/2023	Cara North	Excerpt/IG Post
9/6/2023	@jael_and_jenessa_reads	Excerpt/IG Post
9/7/2023	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt/IG Post
9/8/2023	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post

Week Two:

9/11/2023	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post
9/12/2023	Review Thick And Thin	Review/IG Post
9/13/2023	@allyluvsbooksalatte	IG Review/TikTok Post
9/14/2023	@katherinebichler	TikTok Post
9/15/2023	Jaime_of_gryffindor	IG Review

Week Three:

9/18/2023	Lifestyle of Me	Review
9/19/2023	avainbookland	IG Review
9/20/2023	Gryffindorbookishnerd	IG Review
9/21/2023	@evergirl200	IG Review
9/22/2023	The Momma Spot	Review

Week Four:

9/25/2023	forthenovellovers	Review
9/26/2023	Paperwitches	Review/IG Post
9/27/2023	Two Points of Interest	Review
9/28/2023	@hodophile_z	IG Review
9/29/2023	The Litt Librarian	Review/IG Post